Small airports like these really don’t smell like much. Sure: the fueling area, hangers, and maintenance shops have a smell, but it’s non existent as soon as you’re 50 feet away from them.
What is fucked up is how much leaded fuel gets dumped on the ground. Part of the pre-flight check for planes is taking a sample of gas from the lowest point in the tanks (the “sump”) to make sure there’s no water in it. It’s usually done with a tool like this one. A lot of pilots just toss the fuel sample on the ground rather than “dispose” of it properly.
One of the first things my instructor told me was “I hope you’re getting your license for fun or a job, and not planning on commuting. Eventually you’ll get stuck somewhere due to the weather.”
Heavy, powerful commercial jets have deicing systems. They also have the benefit of an entire team of air traffic controllers on takeoff and landing – and they still get grounded by weather. Small planes are grounded by such inclement weather as “fog”, “thunderstorms”, “high winds”, and “low cloud cover”.
An "airport neighbourhood" where people can store their planes in their yard and taxi directly to the runway (lemmy.ml)
Location on a map: www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=42.1486108&mlon=-…